Amish Furniture moves to refurbished dairy barn

Saturday

Aug 14, 2004 at 12:01 AM

By NAOMI SNYDERStaff WriterSMITHVILLE The Amish Furniture Warehouse is making itself at home in a relocated historic Wayne County dairy barn.The 1830s barn that once stood at the former Besancon farmstead on Geyers Chapel Road now sits next to the Barn Restaurant on state Route 585.Mark Dravenstott, one of the owners of the family-run restaurant, teamed up with the barn's then-owner Jeff Weygandt, moving the barn to the restaurant to house the furniture store owned by Duane Ours.Ours said the move from the store's old location at 121 Main St. has been quite an adjustment."We've increased in size by 11 times, and that's just showroom space," Ours said.The new location has more than 10,000 square feet of space, including about 8,000 square feet of showroom and additional space for a manufacturing area.Shoppers can look through windows on the barn's upper level, into an upholstery and furniture workshop."It's a stunning facility," Ours said.The store's work force also has increased."We've just about doubled the number of employees," Ours said."We're up to 10 employees right now, and we'll be adjusting that as we settle in," business manager Judy Sonnet said."We had more browsers here last week on Friday afternoon, between 1:30 and 4 p.m., than we did in an entire month at our old store," Sonnet said.The store offers custom Amish-made bedroom, dining and office furniture.Business hours are Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m.-9 p.m.Business editor and health reporter Naomi Snyder can be reached at (330) 287-1623 or e-mail nsnyder@the-daily-record.com.